There is very little in our licensing about fire drills other than they should be preformed monthly and suggested time is under two minutes.

When I worked school age care we did them monthly and we included all children being silent for 10 seconds into our time. We would tell them the first few months of the school year that it was happening between two activities (September), sometime during the day (October, November) and the rest of the months were at random with no warning.

We donít mess around with jackets as in a true emergency we wouldnít be grabbing them. Just as you might not have time to move the tables in the event of an actual fire.

In fact one time our licensor specifically requested we do an unannounced drill in her presence. She told us that during drills we didnít have to actually take them outside, just lined up and ready. We still took them outside most of the times but sometimes pre her advice we didnít bother going all the way outside of it was the dead of winter.